(NaturalNews) Astaxanthin is one of the most potent algae-based superfood supplements known to the natural products industry. Derived from algae, it is known as "King of the carotenoids" and it demonstrates many supportive health effects in the human body.*

Until now, all the astaxanthin sold for human supplementation has been derived from algae grown in large ponds. But now a new synthetic astaxanthin is entering the market, and consumer won't be able to tell the difference between the two because synthetic astaxanthin can be labeled "astaxanthin" with no indicate that it was derived from petroleum.

Yes, that's where synthetic astaxanthin comes from: petrochemicals.

Beware of synthetic astaxanthin

There are two huge problems with this. First off, synthetic astaxanthin supplements are going to flood the market with cheap prices, undercutting the algae-derived astaxanthin that's now available. Because many retailers are only interested in price and not quality, they will gladly carry this synthetic astaxanthin and try to pawn it off as the real thing. (Note: Natural News will never carry synthetic astaxanthin. Count on it!)

Secondly, because the antioxidant activity of this synthetic astaxanthin is 20 to 50 times weaker than natural astaxanthin, according to the available science, all the usual suspects who attack nutritional supplements will immediately initiate clinical trials on synthetic astaxanthin which are designed to fail.

Within a year, you'll start seeing headlines across all the usual lamestream media outlets, saying things like, "Astaxanthin fails in clinical trials." We've already seen shocking examples of how Reuters will distort the science and lie to their readers to disparage nutritional supplements using blatantly misleading headlines.

This is precisely what pharma-controlled "scientists" did with vitamin E trials, making sure they studied synthetic vitamin E which had the opposite molecule structure of the natural vitamin E found in foods like tree nuts. Remember: the pharma-funded science cartels will leap at any opportunity to discredit a natural supplement, even if it means deceiving the public by blurring the line between synthetic supplements and genuinely real supplements from living sources.

You can fully expect to start seeing derogatory headlines about astaxanthin as soon as they can complete their contrived, designed-to-fail research on synthetic astaxanthin.

Science testing reveals real differences

According to a review paper published in Nutrafoods, "In vitro studies conducted at Creighton University and Brunswick Laboratories showed [natural astaxanthin] to be over 50 times stronger than [synthetic astaxanthin] in singlet oxygen quenching and approximately 20 times stronger in free radical elimination."

The paper was authored by principal scientists at Cyanotech, makes of natural astaxanthin, but I have reviewed the full text of the paper and found it to be extremely well cited and detailed. You can read the abstract here.

Perhaps the most important consideration in all this is that no clinical human trials have ever been conducted on synthetic astaxanthin. Natural astaxanthin, on the other hand, is backed by a multitude of clinical trials and many years of safe consumption among satisfied customers.

Like you, I only advocate the consumption of nutrients created by nature and derived from genuine sources of foods or superfoods. I do not condone the consumption of synthetic molecules, especially molecules derived from petrochemicals.

When you buy astaxanthin, make sure you confirm it is real, authentic astaxanthin and not artificial, synthetic astaxanthin. This distinction is going to become even more important as this synthetic astaxanthin floods the market this year.

About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and Native American Indians. He's also of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

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